Meeting travel restrictions during pandemic
February 24, 2021
From our own experience, traveling to some destinations in Luzon is possible, with varying degree of difficulties for meeting the requirements under COVID-19 rules.
Going to Tagaytay is possible, and no one has ever reported being stopped at any check point.
Going to Subic Bay, on the other hand, requires prior booking and securing health certificate from your local medical center, which, in the case of Taguig City, is free of charge.
Some places, such as Batangas, require visitors to have antigen test. It costs around P2,500 per test (nose swap is slightly more expensive than the newly approved saliva test), and takes about an hour to get the result. Some local authorities, such as the one at Barangay Mabini near Anilao in Batangas, have put up antigen test booths next to their checkpoint, and these booths charge about P1,000 per test, we were advised.
Yet other places, like Boracay and Palawan, require the more expensive PCR-RT test, which costs about P4,000 and can take a day or two to get the result.
A Whole New World
February 10, 2021
Dining with kids near Tagaytay
January 15, 2021
As part of the effort to control the spread of COVID-19, authorities in the Philippines have announced various travel restrictions on the public. More stringent restrictions are imposed on children and the delerly, as they are regarded as being more vulnerable to the disease. There are broad based restrictions, such as those announced by the central government regarding the classification of quarantine levels by geographical areas. Then there are further restrictions announced by the local authorities. The central authorities' announcements can sometimes be found in the official website of PCOO, like this one (https://pcoo.gov.ph/news_releases/metro-manila-nine-other-areas-placed-under-gcq-in-january/) that announces the extension of GCQ in Metro Manila and a few other places in January 2021. Unfortunately for the public, there is no centralized official bulletin board where the public can check the local restrictions in all places. We have to search the websites and social media of the places that we are interested in to get the announcements by local authorities, making it difficult for people to make informed decisions, and for the authorities to achieve their goals. Tagaytay out of bound to kids under 15 years old We found this poster in the FB page of Tagaytay City that bans kids under 15 years old from visiting the city.
